Troops go in if it is morally right, says Blair

Prime Minister Tony Blair has insisted that he would never commit British troops to military action unless he believed it was morally right and would make the world a safer place.

He made clear that he would not allow his determination to tackle Saddam Hussein to be swayed by the calls for peace of moral leaders like the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Mr Blair said he still hoped that the current crisis in Iraq could be resolved peacefully by Saddam voluntarily giving up his weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

But if he did not, the Prime Minister said he believed he would be able to "build support" in the United Nations for military action to disarm him by force.

Answering the questions of Independent on Sunday readers concerned about the possibility of war, Mr Blair acknowledged that there was no imminent danger of Saddam launching a direct attack on a neighbouring state or a western capital like London.

But he restated his fear that, if left unchecked, the Iraqi dictator would develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and use them against other states or pass them to terrorist groups.

Mr Blair said: "I am not saying that Saddam is about to launch an attack on London or Paris or New York. I am not even saying he will immediately launch another attack on one of his neighbours, although everything in Saddam's history shows he will do once he thinks he can get away with it.

"And when he does, emboldened by success in defying the UN and stronger because of his WMD, the international community will have to intervene again, but will find him stronger."

Rogue states like Iraq were "the most likely source" of WMD for terrorists, who were desperate to use them to inflict mass civilian casualties, said Mr Blair.

"The real nightmare is that if we don't uphold the UN's authority over Saddam's WMD, we will be sending out a very dangerous signal of weakness which makes this much more likely," he said.